Well as you can see, it's been awhile since we have done an update.

     We now have a bunch of new calves. Since "Patty" (3/17/09) was born we have had 4 heifers and 3 bulls born. The calves' names, in order of birth, are Baby (H-10/12/09), Kobe (B-2/25/10), Kerry (H-3/9/10), Eddy AKA Houdini (B-5/4/10), Liberty (H-9/11/10), Samantha (H-1/7/11), and Yoco (B-2/20/11). Eddy is our "escape artist" even an electric fence doesn't bother him. We always find him in on our yard eating the grass.   Keko and Touille (our 2 older bull calves) were butchered in April 2010. We shared the meat with our daughter and her family. Half Pint, our other bull calf, we discovered in the field dead during the winter of 2009.

     Our grandson, Blake, is 7 1/2 and in second grade. Our granddaughter, Kylee, is 3 1/2 and a ball of energy. They have started skiing this year. Our daughter is still managing the local Subway store, and our son-in-law works for the local lumberyard.

     We raised turkeys this summer and boy did we raise them right! We ended up with a 39 lb. tom and 3 hens that weight 21, 24 and 30 lbs. We had the tom for Thanksgiving and was that fun. Had to buy a bigger pan to cook him in , he just fit into the oven. The hens went into the freezer for use at a later date. By the way, we did the butchering ourselves with the help of a friend. 

      This is our 2nd year running the church Community Dinners. It runs from the beginning of November and end at the end of March. The dinners are put on once a week and go on no matter the weather conditions. We serve about 60 meals a week.

      We are getting ready to start our 3rd year of maple sugaring (syrup). We have increased our yield as we have gotten better doing the sugaring. We had 10 taps last year (2010) and hope to do 20 this year (2011). We have become spoiled and don't like "store bought" syrup anymore.

     We are, also, getting ready for the summer Farmers Markets this year. Hope to add a market to our list of markets. John started selling his woodworking toys and cutting board to our setup for the market along with my jams. I make about 35 different flavors of jams & jellies depending on the season.

     Over the winter, John has been adding to the run-in for the cows. The cows don't mind the weather. The breed, Dexter, are very comfortable in the cold weather, they only need a place out of the wind.
 
     We are discussing trying to raise pigs next, and where to put their housing. Should be exciting for us. We are becoming "farmers" learning to raise and butcher our small animals on our hobby farm.

     So, Alot has happened since i last wrote. Will and I no longer live on the farm. We bought our own house, in the same town in Nov. of 2008!!

     But, Anyway, back to the farm!! During the winter, they lost the last bull from the first "litter", Half Pint. They aren't sure what happened. They just found him dead one day!! Lady has started the calving for this year and had a cow which was named Gal!! I forget when she was born. Then Bashful had another cow on St. Patty's day named........Patty!! HAHA!! So original!! HEHE!!

     My dad has been tapping some of the maple trees on the property and has been making maple syrup. It's kind of a long process but it is pretty cool.

     My mom's jam making has been going strong. She has started selling at a local store and this summer will sell at flea markets and farmers' markets too!! She has tried many new flavors, most were good. A couple of flops but oh well!!

     They have gotten their 5000th egg from their chickens just a couple days ago!! Insane, I know!! Well, Thats all I have time for now!! I will try more later!! ~SB

     Dunkin Gallaway, approx. 2 yrs of age, leader of his herd, died on the back field on July 6th, 2008, following a courageous battle with his owner, Alex.

     He was born on a New Hampshire farm to two other gallaways. He then was bought by Alex and Kristi and was moved to their fields in 2006. In 2007 he adopted a Black Angus and just 7 weeks ago adopted a Belted Gallaway/Jersey cross.

     Mr. Gallaway graduated from follower to leader of his herd in late 2007.

     In November of 2007 he met Big Boy. They became fast friends and then lovers. They tried to keep in touch and even meet a couple times. That is until their owners found out and tried to keep them apart.

     Mr. Gallaway is survived by his adopted children Black Angus and Belted Gallaway/Jersey. As well as his lover, Big Boy and his herd, PIMA, Bashful, Lady and their children, KEKO, Touille, and Half Pint.

     Funeral services were held for him today at 7AM at his field on Indian Pond Road. He will be laid to rest in 2 days in his 21.7 cubic inch Fridgidaire chest freezer.   

                                                               Rest in Pieces ~ Dunkin Gallaway

HEHE   ~SB

     We had a visitor Sat. morning. Our neighbors cows had gotten out. A Belted Gallway steer named Dunkin, a Black Angus steer and a Belted Gallaway/Jersey cross steer. Guess what??? No one was home except me........not even my neighbors, Alex and Kristi. I tried to get them into our field for about 15 mins by myself but that just wasn't happening. Finally 2 people stopped to help. We got Dunkin into the field with our cows and the 2 smaller ones went into one of our other fields across the road.
     So, on the explain the title of this blog. Dunkin and Big Boy are long lost lovers. They meet early this year during the winter when Alex and Kristi's cows had gotten out for the first time. It's so funny because the follow each other around. They walk side by side, lay down side by side and sometimes Big Boy, who is shorter, will put his head on Dunkin's shoulders. My dad calls them Victor Victoria. I think they are the odd couple.
     This morning I got woken up at 6:15am to Big Boy crying. (Keep in mind that Big Boy almost never moos.) After waking up I look out our window to see him standing at the edge of the fence 'crying'. "Dunkin, come back. I need you. I miss you. I'm sorry for whatever I did!" HAHA!!! Such a funny bull. He just stood there, Mooing, over and over again for a good 5 mins or so. Earlier today I could hear Dunkin mooing for Big Boy. "I'm sorry, they made me leave. I can't find a way out but if I do, I will be back!" It's like a soap opera. The Bull and the Beautiful. Dunkins of our Lives
     Alex and Kristi said they have never seen a steer and bull get along as good as these 2 do. But like I said, they are long lost lovers!! The things you will see on the farm. 
     I will try to post a picture of them later today.
Here is that picture. Big Boy is on the right with his head on Dunkin's shoulders. "Lean on me, when you're not strong, And I'll be your friend. I'll help you carry on... For it won't be long, 'Til I'm gonna need Somebody to lean on." HAHA!!

Alex and Kristi's other 2 steers. The Belted Gallway/Jersy cross is on the left and the Black Angus is on the right!

On Feb. 25th, 2008 we got our 1000th egg. Here's a picture.

I know, kinda sad that we took a picture of the egg, but what can I say, we are excited. So, that's really all. I forgot to mention it a the last blog so here it is!!  SB

     Well, Winter is still here! We're up for more snow the next couple of days. Between Tues and Wed we are supposed to get 6-13 inches and then on Thursday night it should be -9 degrees. It should be a fun couple of days.

     I have been able to let the chickens out of the coop the past 2 days. They seem to enjoy it. In 2 weeks we will be getting our new chicks. I'm so excited. We are getting 9 different kinds plus one exotic one (that we don't know what it will be). Maybe I'll try to add a section on the website w/the pictures of the chicks that we are supposed to be getting.

     The cows are doing good. Eating lots but not too much. The little guys, KEKO and Touille are doing good. They have started to eat the sweet grain. We have been able to touch KEKO and have found out he has little nubs. His horns are starting to come in. We still have not castrated them. We will have to wait until spring. We are not sure if PIMA is even pregnant anymore. Only time will tell I guess!

     There is much else to update about. Hope to be able to tell more soon.  SB

     Well, I'm back!! Better late then never. Trying to keep up with everything, (new baby, farm, and other duties) has been harder then I thought. I must admit, I have been falling behind on the website.

     For Christmas I thought it would be cool to have T-Shirts made for us with the farm logo. Problem number one was we didn't have a logo yet. Problem number two: It was 2 weeks before Christmas. So, I called a local screenprinter located in Lebanon, NH and talked to him and explained what I wanted and he said it would be done before Christmas. So i met with him the very same day and we worked out a logo.  Check out the website to see a nice big picture of it.

    Well, we have had our 2nd calf. He was born on Jan. 2nd, 2008. We named him Touille AKA Ratatouille. We figured on this name because he is the 2nd calf to be born and he was born on the 2nd and he was also born during  the year of the rat. When I mentioned the name Blake was the only one to understand it. He goes, "Oh, like the movie!!" HAHA! No one else understood. He is doing great now. Bouncing all over the place with Keko. His mom, Bashful, is SUPER protective though. So he is very hard to get close to. They are both so cute.

     During Will's B-day weekend I had friends up from NY. It was nice to finally have someone see how we have been living since we moved. They seemed to really enjoy it. I think they now understand why we would never move back to NY. They ended up having to leave one day early because of a snow storm. They got home just as it started.  

     We have slowly been rolling 800 lb hay bales down the hill because we thought we would have had that field fenced in for winter, but boy were we wrong. So, we roll them down the hill, grab them with the tractor and drive them down the road to the field they are in. My dad and Will say they are 'dung beetles' when they roll them.

     Recently my mom and I set out to buy the tools to castrate the 2 baby bulls. We picked up a rubber band stretcher and the bands. We then found out that the calves would need a shot first so we aren't sure when we are going to castrate them but it will need to be soon. Pretty soon we won't be able to hold them down.

     Quick update on our family. Kylee is now 6 months old. Eatting some solids and rolling over on her back and stomach. She has started to get her knees under her body she just needs to get her hands under there and she will be crawling. Blake is excited to start school in August. He will be in kindergarten. Will and I have planned a vacation for this summer as a long weekend to Boston, MA. It should be fun. The aquarium, 2 zoos, childrens museum and lots of other things. My parents have recently added to the farm. HEHE! They bought a 29 gallon fish tank and have it stocked with lots of fish, 2 frogs, 4 ghost shrimp and snails.

     Well, I think that is all the updating I needed to do. Go check the website. I have changed it a little.  SB 

     Well, Its that time of the year again. The holidays are here. One down, 2 to go! My husband has been working so much overtime recently I'm not sure i'm even married anymore!  Everything has been crazy around here.

     On Nov. 10th we had some of my moms family over and had a pig roast. There was a total of 18 people here. It was awesome. We got a pig butchers from a local farmer and had a whole pig roast. I fould plans for a pig pit, and my dad, Will, and I built it. We served roast white potatoes and sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, buttermilk biscuits, cornbread, roasted veggies, baked beans, and some other things, I cant remember. But it was all homemade. I even made the butter and BBQ sauce. We made a full spead for breakfast too! Diff. Flavored quiches, bacon, sausage, toast, homemade jams, hash browns!! i think thats all! They were only here for 1 1/2 days but it was nice to see everyone.

     Then came Thanksgiving!! We got a fresh, not frozen, 26 lb. turkey from a local farmer and then had all the fixins with it. We actually had to add leafs to the dining room table to fit all the food even though there was only the 4 adults, and blake eatting!! lol! It was soooo much food. We are STILL eatting the turkey too!!

     Just before thanksgiving we placed an order for more chicks for next year from McMurray's Hatchery. ( www.McMurrayHatchery.com ) We ordered 27 more chicks to be delivered on March 10th of '08. Ok, we got a total of 9 different breeds, 3 of each, and i've been trying to remember them all, I'm gonna try and name them from memory! Wish me luck! Turkens, Gold Polish, well, thats as far as I got, im drawing a blank. Time to look them up! Black Giants, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Partridge Rock, Buff Rock, Columbian Wyandottes, Mottled Houdans, Araucanas. Thats all of them!! If you wanna she what they look like just go to the McMurray website and click on Standard Breed Chicks.

     Well, My dad is still working on the run-in for the cows. Its been slow going and only getting slow. The temps haven't been very warm, mostly 30's, and its been snowing on and off all week, which doesnt make it fun to work outside. I'm still working on the fencing across the street. Its harder to do now that i can't take Kylee outside with me because its sooooo cold!

     It's almost time for bed but i have one request for everyone reading this. We have a small contest set up on the website. We are trying to decide on a name for the 2nd calf to be born. Blake has picked names for the 1st one but we are asking for help for the 2nd one. So, Please just check out the website and give us some ideas. ~SB

RANDY THE ROOSTER

     A farmer wanted to have his hens serviced, so he went to the market looking for a rooster. He was hoping he could get a special rooster and told this to the market vendor.

     The vendor replied: "I have just the rooster for you. Randy here is the horniest rooster you will ever see!"                                              

     So the farmer bought Randy and took him back to the farm. Before setting him loose in the hen house, though, he gave Randy a little pep talk: "Randy," he said, "I'm counting on you to do your stuff." And with that, Randy strutted into the hen house.

     Randy was as fast as he was furious, mounting each hen like a thunderbolt. There was much squawking and many feathers flying, till Randy had finished having his way with each hen. But, Randy didn't stop there.

Randy went into the barn and mounted all of the horses, one by one, and still at the same frantic pace.

Then he went to the pig house, where he did the same.

     The farmer, watching all of this with disbelief cried out, "Stop, Randy! You'll kill yourself!" But Randy continued, seeking out each farm animal in the same manner.

     Well, the next morning, the farmer looked out and saw Randy lying there on his lawn. His legs were up in the air, his eyes rolled back, and his long tongue hanging out. A buzzard was already circling above Randy.

     The farmer walked up to Randy saying, "Oh you poor thing, look what you did, you've gone and killed yourself. I warned you, little buddy."

     "Shhhhhhh," Randy whispered, "The buzzard's getting closer."

Needless to say our rooster isn't getting a visit from a buzzard. We lost one of our roosters today. We have no idea what happened. I went in around 1pm to check on them and there he was, just inside the door lying there. Of course there i was screaming, not knowing what to do. My mom gets out there and picks him up and it was obvious, (by the way, if you havent already noticed i cant spell) his neck was broken. But there was no sign of a fight. No extra feathers lying around, no blood, no wounds, nothing. All the other chickens were off the ground and wouldnt get off their perches. So we were to 'chicken shit', no pun intended, to eat him so we buried him!! What great farmers we are. Couldnt even eat our own chicken.  

     On to happier news. We finished fencing the other field and got the cows moved into there. They seem very happy!! Well, Im pretty tired so i guess there isnt really much else to say! Except onto the next field!!   SB

     So tonight, My mom and I decided to try our hand at making sour cream and butter. Alittle Background first would be helpful, huh??!!

     In October of '05, the weekend after Will and I were married my mom and I took a cheesemaking class in Ashfield, MA from a lady named Ricki Carroll. She seemed pretty cool. Her house was very eclectic and amlost "hippie" like, for a lack of a better word. The house was an old victorian that hand many colors on all the different designs outside. Anyway, back to the class. Turns out Ricki Carroll is pretty famous in the cheesemaking world. She has a couple books out that most cheesemakers have, and sells all the supplies you need on a website, www.cheesemaking.com . That day we learned to make ricotta, mozzarella, and a couple others, I forget, my mom would know better. But anyways, since then we have be just waiting to try our hands at it. So, we had ordered all our supplies from her and were waiting on our cheese press to really get started and it came alittle while ago so we started today!!

     She did the sourcream and I made the butter. The sourcream was super easy. All you do is heat the Light cream or Half and Half to 86 degrees. Then add the Sour cream culture and leave to sit in a Yogortherm, (Thermos) for 12 hours and then refrigerate and use. I will update this tommorow and let you know how it was. 

      The butter was SUPER easy!! We put one pint of room temperture, about 72 degrees, into a blender and blended on the 'dressing' setting for about 10 mins until it seperated into Butter fat and Buttermilk. I saved the buttermilk for pancakes and took the butter fat and 'washed' it. Pretty much washing it in cold water and washing until the water ran free of the buttermilk. Then I put it in a small 'I can't believe it's not butter" container. I let it chill for about 10 mins to harden and and then made a slice of toast. It tasted the same as store bought butter. I didnt add any cheese salt because we never buy salted butter anyway so i figured why start now. I will make the pancakes in the morning to see how that tastes.

     So, Anyway, this is our first start at this. Im thinking the butter might not be worth making though. It cost 4.00 for the pint and you only get the small tub of butter out of it. Oh, well, i'll have to look into that more.

     So, In November we are having a small family reunion here with my moms side of the family and we have decided to do a pig roast so I have to look up a place to get a pig decide on a menu and show it to my parents. Well, I let you know how everything goes.  SB

     So, On Friday my dad retired from IBM after 33 years. My parents invited my kids and I, my husband had to work, to go to NY with them. On Friday they had a small party for him. His manager, Kevin, had a list of things that my dad has done for the company and then a couple of the guys told stories about my dad.

     Most stories I had heard my dad tell but one told by Jack Cassell, a member of a band called Bill's Toupee ( www.billstoupee.com ) was so unexpected. He made a 'confession.' That back in 1985 he and a couple of the guys decided to visit my dad at home and picked up some beers and drove over. Well, they got there and no one was home so they waited for alittle. Still no one came so they decided 'what the hell' and went around to the deck in our backyard and drank their beers. When they were done no one had come home yet so they decided to hide some beer bottles around the backyard and see if my dad would say something at work about the bottles. Well, needless to say it has been 22 yrs and nothing was ever mentioned. My dad couldn't believe it. He had never even found them. I guess my mom found them and just picked them up and never said a word.  

     I finally met the infamous FRANK!!! My dad has been asking him alot of the unanswered farm questions that he had. I guess Frank grew up on a farm so he kinda knows what going on. He also flys planes. When my dad found out that he has flown a biplane he thought it was awesome. I remember almost every year when I was younger we would all go to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome ( www.oldrhinebeck.org ) and every year we would watch Trudy Truelove be saved from the Red Baron by Percy Goodfellow. Another great childhood memory. Frank told me I need to update the website more often so I will work on that more. 

     Well, our next step is to work on the Dexter Run-In. We are still deciding exactly how we want to roof to be so it might be alittle longer but I will keep you updated. Also, We are still working on getting a winter's worth of hay as well as fencing in another field. So needless to say my dad retired from IBM but is now officially a Farmer. Farmer John! HEHE.

     Off to continue updating the website. SB  

WE GOT THE DEXTERS TODAY!!! I was so excited!! So we go to the people's house to get them and they easily get the females into the trailer but in the midst of trying to get the bull in the back 1/2 of the trailer they also got a steer and one of the calves stuck in there with him. Well, our bull, Big Boy, tried to horn the steer and missed, thank god, but he hit the wall of the trailer and broke his horn off and started bleeding alot. My dad was kinda upset that it broke off but only because he just liked how they looked. i was too! We finally got them home and they calmed down and they seem to love it!! He was still bleeding after getting him home so we called a vet and they said not to worry about it so we arent! We have already been in there with them and hand feed them grain. Our female that is pregnant is "bagging up" or ready to give birth!! Im couldnt be happier. finally a birth where i am not the one giving birth. so i will probably update when she does give birth to let you all know whether its a girl or a boy!! SB

     Well, the Chicken Coop is almost done but we are already onto the next project. We have about 1 week to get the fencing done for the cows. It def. is not enough time but we will have to do it or run the chance of losing the cows. We have put in most of the posts but still have to put in all the corner posts and run the wire. Hopefully we will get this done on time. I will let you know.

     My mom and I, mostly my mom, have been working on doing canning. Together we made a strawberry jam. I put the items in the pot in the wrong order and it didn't turn out 100% right but it wasnt bad. My mom made a raspberry one and a triple berry, which is strawberry, raspberry and blueberry mix. That is def. a house favorite. She has plans to make a spiced peach jam and saurkruat, which my dad loves. We found out our 2 chicks that we have been calling our big mommas are actually our big poppas. Yup thats right, we have 2 roosters. They arent as bad as i thought they would be. I was afriad will and i would be able to hear them from our room but we can't. We had been calling them our transvestite birds but we finally asked our neighbor if he would be able to tell and he said they are def. roosters.

     well, Kylee is calling. I will try to update more later. SB